updated 01:33 pm EST, Fri December 21, 2012

iPhone 5 sales boost Apple to outselling all Android phones combined

The phenomenal sales of Apple's iPhone 5 helped boost the Cupertino company to its highest-ever share of US smartphone sales according to stats from over the past 12 weeks. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released a new analysis of the US smartphone market in the current quarter, finding that the release of the iPhone 5 caused Apple's share of sales to jump to 53.3 percent in the United States, largely at the expense of iOS' main competitor, Google's Android platform. Year-over-year, iOS sales share was up 17.5 percentage points, while Android's share dropped 10.9 points.

Apple's bump came also at the expense of Canadian BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, which has struggled to retain users even as it prepares to launch the next generation of BlackBerry devices. Year-over-year, RIM saw its share of sales for the 12 weeks ending November 25 drop from seven percent to 1.4 percent. RIM and Android's share drops, taken together, account for all of the gain Apple saw over the 12 week period.

Kantar expects December will see Apple making even further gains as the busy holiday shopping season wraps up. While the iPhone 5 pushed Apple to a dominant position in the US market, chief rival Samsung still holds the top spot in the European market. Kantar has Samsung holding a 44.3 percent share across the "big five" European nations, with Apple taking second place at 25.3 percent.

Since Apple doesn't sell $49 smartphones, comparing it against other manufacturers doesn't make a lot of sense.

This is a comparison of raw smartphone handset sales in the US market. If they have 53 % of raw unit numbers then their share of dollars is obviously going to be much higher so I don't really get the point of your comment.